Why Full Tilt?
I approached Howard Lederer about this project in November 2005, making the following points:
* Although there were a few good books about tournament poker, there would always be room for a comprehensive tournament guide—all the games, advanced strategy on both the play of hands and tournament tactics.
* Full Tilt Poker had a brilliant and diverse group of poker strategists among its pros and their insights would be valuable and desired.
* A Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide would be consistent with FullTiltPoker.com's identification with helping players improve and the site's connection with professional poker (e.g., the site's weekly "Tips from the Pros" and Fox Sports Net's FullTiltPoker .net's Learn from the Pros television series).
I must have been persuasive, because Howard convinced the site's software company and helped me get other players to contribute.
Although I am friends with several Full Tilt pros, play on the site, and have thoroughly enjoyed this collaboration, I was not, during production of this book, an employee, consultant, or in any way affiliated with Full Tilt Poker. I am not saying that to avoid an association during this period of legal uncertainty about the status of online poker; during post-production, I began writing The Full Tilt Poker Blog partly to promote the ideas of this book.
I am telling you this because I want you to know that this book will not ram FullTiltPoker.com (or .net) down your throat.
Full Tilt provided a unifying purpose to round up and motivate the contributors. But nobody will hector you to play poker online or to play on their site. There are few references to Full Tilt in this book that could conceivably be considered "persuasive" for the site. Even chapter 10, "Online Tournament Strategy," by Richard Brodie, mentions the site several times only because it was necessary to describe how the limits and levels of online tournaments compared to casino tournaments. It would have been pretty silly for Richard to pick a tournament structure from some other site.
The Structure of This Book
No-limit hold 'em dominates tournament poker. Therefore, especially considering the accomplishments of the contributors, it is covered in a comprehensive fashion in this book. Chapters 3 through 10 are all about no-limit hold 'em tournaments. Chapters 3 through 5 are essays by Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, and Ted Forrest. Chapters 6 and 7, by Andy Bloch and Chris Ferguson, respectively, are about pre-flop and post-flop play. Chapters 8 and 9 concern how to play a big stack (by Gavin Smith) and how to play a short stack (by Phil Gordon). Richard Brodie wraps up the no-limit hold 'em chapters by applying all these concepts to online tournaments.
Chapters 11 and 12 concern other forms of tournament hold 'em. Chapter 11 explains how to adapt no-limit strategy to pot-limit hold 'em tournaments, by Rafe Furst and Andy Bloch. Chapter 12, the longest of the book, is Howard Lederer's strategy for playing limit hold 'em tournaments.
Chapters 13 and 14 cover Omaha. Mike Matusow was responsible for chapter 13 on tournament Omaha eight-or-better. Chris Ferguson wrote chapter 14 on pot-limit Omaha tournaments.
The next section of the book consists of four chapters on forms of stud poker. Chapter 15, by Keith Sexton, describes the play of stud hands in tournaments. Chapter 16, by David Grey, explains strategic concepts in seven-card stud tournaments. Chapter 17, by Ted Forrest, describes his strategy for playing stud eight-or-better tournaments. Chapter 18 was actually written by me, as a witness to a remarkable conversation between Forrest and Huckleberry Seed in the form of a razz lesson they gave me the night before that event at the 2006 World Series of Poker.
The concluding materials include an unusual and innovative examination of the mental game of poker. Chapter 19, "Roshambo and the Mental Game of Poker," by Rafe Furst, explains how this children's game (or, more accurately, a game now played for money by adults who behave like children) can teach valuable lessons on the mental game of poker.
When I wrote The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King, I had an ambitious, egotistical goal, which I was smart enough to keep to myself. I wanted to write a book that would stand the test of time. My idols were Holden and Alvarez, and I placed McManus on that pedestal. I wanted to reveal a story, a world, and a group of people, all of which were too unusual to be real, but too compelling to be imagined.
But I have no need for false modesty with The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition. You will judge this book by the quality of its advice, the questions it leads you to ask, the answers it leads you to find, and, ultimately, the role it plays in your tournament poker experiences. I claim credit for gathering this remarkable team of contributors, keeping them on task, editing their work, and delivering it in completed form. The claim I am staking with the Tournament Edition is a bet on the quality and presentation of poker strategy by Andy Bloch, Richard Brodie, Chris Ferguson, Ted Forrest, Rafe Furst, Phil Gordon, David Grey, Howard Lederer, Mike Matusow, Huckleberry Seed, Keith Sexton, and Gavin Smith.
The twelve contributors to this book have won over $30 million in tournament poker, including the following:
* Two World Series of Poker Championships (and four more final table appearances)
* Twenty-one World Series of Poker bracelets (including multiple bracelets by six contributors)
* Four Hall of Fame watches
* Four World Poker Tour victories (and seven more final table appearances)
* Two World Poker Tour players of the year
* Two World Series of Poker Circuit rings (and three more final table appearances)
* One World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions winner (and two more final table appearances)
* One Professional Poker Tour victory
* One National Heads-Up Championship (and two runner-up finishes)
I want the Tournament Edition to stand the test of time. With these horses, I like our chances.
Notes on Hand Representations
Many, many hands are described in this book, and several are graphically depicted. Most readers will be familiar with the shorthand notations, but here are the conventions followed:
* In the community-card games (see chapters 3 through 14), an X represents a random card. For example, A-X means an ace and a random card.
* In the stud-card games (see chapters 15 through 18), an X represents a hole card as it appears to other players. The hole cards, when their identity is known, are denoted by parentheses. For example, (T[clubs]9[diamonds])T[diamonds] is a starting hand with the ten of diamonds exposed (or "in the door") and hole cards of the ten of clubs and the nine of diamonds.
* Where the suits are not included with the cards, like A-T, that means the suits (and whether the hand is suited) are not material to the example. When listing minimum hand requirements, A-Ts means the ace and ten are suited, A-To means they are not suited, and A-T includes both suited and unsuited combinations of those two cards.
Copyright © 2007 by Michael Craig
SOURCE:
http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/...erpt24885.html